Published on: May 9, 2011
by Kevin CoupeThere was an interesting interview in the New York Times yesterday with Dominic Orr, president/CEO of Aruba Networks, a wireless networking company, in which he talked about his management style. An eye-opening excerpt:
“I use a simple principle of management based on intellectual honesty. You try to be intellectually honest with yourself, meaning that you have to forget about all the face-saving issues and so on. I tell people that if you work for me, you have to have a thick skin because there’s no time to posture.
“I also tell people that everybody can be and will be momentarily stupid. I think that in many large companies, a lot of politics arise because somebody makes a statement in a meeting, and then it’s weeks of wasted time and effort because they have to dig in to defend that position, and then politics come into play because they now want to lobby for their position.
“So when I interview key executives of my staff, I tell them that they need to accept that they can be, and will be, momentarily stupid. If they can accept that and be able to say, ‘Oh, I was momentarily stupid; let’s move on,’ then you don’t waste time dealing with that.”
Words of wisdom ... about stupidity ... for a Monday morning.
- KC's View: